Thursday, April 26, 2012

Before we hit the southern most tip of the American continent we were on the (in)famousRuta 40 in Argentina. Some people drive the road all 5000 km (making it one of the longest roads in the world, together with U.S. Route 66), we chose not to do that. We had crossed the border with Chile the previous day and had stayed the night in Los Antiguos. We'd driven on another part of Ruta 40 before, but that was asphalt and all smooth sailing. We knew this part would not be as easy.

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After turning off at Perito Moreno we were on Ruta 40 again, the beginning was beautiful new asphalt, and not that many cars. But then... the road ceased to exist, they were in progress of upgrading the road, and during that time all traffic was diverted to an improvised road next to the old/new road. This was one of the worst pavements possible, not only was it unpaved, it consisted of larger rocks as well. Too be honest, I was quite surprised I made it through without falling.

The video was shot on that road, and as you can tell, my mood was not the best. I was even talking in Dutch to Shu at one point! (and for those who don't know her, she doesn't speak Dutch...)

We ended up in a small village called Bajo Caracoles. The local 'hotel' owner knew we had little choice so tried to charge the 'hoofdprijs' as we say in Dutch (=fortune), but we managed to find a little other place with quite the reputable hygiene, but it was cheap. And the owner made delicious empanadas :)

(if you read this post through the mailing list or Facebook, you’ll have to go to our blog and view the video there)